The present invention relates to a slidably attaching type connector in which, when a slide member is slid reciprocally in an attaching and detaching direction of multi-pole female type and male type connector housings, both the connector housings are easily attached to and detached from each other by the leverage of a lever which is rotated by sliding the slide member with a small operation force applied to the slide member.
An example of lever type connectors using lever function is shown in FIGS. 6A and 6B. In FIGS. 6A and 6B, a lever type connector 1 includes a multi-terminal (pole) female connector housing 2. The frame support portion 3 of the female connector housing 2 has a slide groove 4. A slide shaft 6 protruded from the lower side of one end of a frame shaped lever 5 is disposed within and supported by the slide groove so as to be freely slidable within the groove. A pair of male connector housings 7, 7 attachable to and detachable from the female connector housing 2 are rotatably supported by a supporting shaft 8 within the frame shaped lever 5.
When a lever operation portion 9 protruded from the upper side of the other end of the frame shaped lever 5 is operated upward or downward to rotate the lever 5 around the slide shaft 6, the connector housing 2 is attachable to and detachable from the connector housings 7, 7. The technique similar to the lever type connector 1 is disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Unexamined Publication No. Hei.6-79080.
However, according to the conventional lever type connector 1, in the case of attaching the male connector housings 7 to the female connector housing 2 in a small mounting space where the female connector housing 2 can not be seen, for example, a person is required to grope for positioning the slide shaft 6 serving as a fulcrum of the lever 5 at the slide groove 4 of the flame support portion 3 of the female connector housing 2 and to insert into and engage with the slide groove. Such an operation requires skilled operation and so the attaching operation of the male and female connector housings 2, 7 is troublesome. In particular, at the time of attaching the male connector housings 7 to the female connector housing 2, first, both the male and female connectors 2, 7 are provisionally attached and second, the lever operation portion 9 is pressed. In this manner, since two steps of the operations are required, it is required to change the holding position of the lever 5 when performing the second operation. Further, since the slide shaft 6 and the lever operation portion 9 are protruded at both sides of the lever 5 supporting the male connector housings 7, the entire size of the connector is large. Furthermore, there is a possibility that, as a result of external load forces, the slide shaft 6 of the lever 5 may come out of the slide groove 4 of the frame support portion 3 and the slide shaft 6 and the lever operation portion 9 protruded at both sides of the lever 5 may be broken.